Headlight options (LED)

[Pjackb]

So I have had a lot of questions about my headlights and decided to put the info all at the same place in case someone will find it useful. The information shared is valid for 5.75” and 7” headlights so can be used for any of your Datsun vehicles
I’m not a headlight expert so use the information at your own discretion, but I can say that the information provided is only based on first hand experience not speculation I will talk about each options and share the pro and cons as I see them.

IPCW Crystal Clear Diamond Cut Headlights 7003 (5.75”) 7005 (7”) 5.75” 25$/headlight halogen and $40/headlight LED

Pros: Quick delivery, nice quality, glass Lenses , easy to install
Cons: Flat lens only

Hella H4 flat lenses only. Sold without bulbs and accepts H4 LED or Halogens. Available at Summit, Amazon etc. No relay needed for LED
The quality of these is good, the glass is nice but the metal back is ok quality at best IMO , the pictures everywhere show these as Cibie style lens but I’ve received classic style every time I ordered so I think they changed design at some point .
I’ve bought these for the 510 and using 4 of them with LED bulbs. Very happy with the quality.

IPCW on 510


IPCW on 510 low beam


IPCW on 510 High beams


The bulbs are Sealight X1 LEDs
https://sealight-led.com/x1-h4-9003-hb2-led-bulbs.html


Neolite Conversion headlights 5.75” 16$/headlight halogen and $40/headlight LED

Pros: Nice quality, glass Lenses , halogen bulbs included
Cons: none for me

Available H4 low/hi beams (5.75”, 7” and 200mm rectangle) and H1 High beams (5.75”) No relay needed for LED
They come with halogen bulbs if ordered from Classicgarage.com (https://classicgarage.com/neolitelamps.html) and should be the go to if you’re going halogen.

They also offer both flat and curved lenses. I tried hem with LED and they were pretty good but with a little more scattering than the IPCW. I was going to use them but they unfortunately made mistakes in my order a couple times and I ended up with different lenses and it was just easier and faster for me in Canada to get the IPCW from Amazon.

Neolite 5.75” flat lens



Vintage Car Leds from 120$/headlight

Pros: Awesome quality, great customer service , easy to install
Cons: Some mods required with the 7” models
https://vintagecarleds.com/7-inch-round-headlights/

Love these, very high quality lenses and LED bulbs with fan , these were designed as LED from the get go and offer multiple lend selection including Cibie and clear Hella, all the lenses have great cutoff patterns and brightness.
I have been running their VC3500 in my red roadster model for 2 years and they make driving at night a pleasure.

VC3500 Classic lens




The fan is pretty big on the VC3500 and will require modification on the bucket for Roadsters and Z (not so with the VCm3)





Other Brands I have not tested personally.
Dapper Lighting approx. 225$/headlight

Pros: Great quality , lots of choices and options
Cons: Expensive, no real classic lens in 5.75” model

https://www.dapperlighting.com/collections/7

I’ve seen them in person at a show and they offer very nice quality headlights with both modern and classic look, but they are on the expensive end of the spectrum and you will need to figure about $200 per headlight depending on options
For classics style lens you’re looking at 510 that’s $580 for Halogen and $880 for 30W LED , for roadsters and Z that’s $ 450.00



Holley Retrobrights approx. 200$/headlight
Pros: Great quality , 3 different color temperature , Holley quality
Cons: Expensive
https://www.holley.com/products/restora ... trobright/

I’ve not tested seen these in person or tested them, but I like them a lot for a few reasons.
They look very sturdy and like the best made of all the headlights , have a great lens and more importantly they are available In 3 color temperature including classic white which looks completely original while having the superior lighting output of an LED.
Figure about 180-200$ each for these but completely worth it in my opinion


Finally in case you're wondering here a comparaison of a stock halogen bulb and a Hella lens with LED side by side

[iloveredmeat]

This is AWESOME info. Thank you Jacques!
pm

[Habitat.pat]

Thanks for posting this.

Several questions though.

In your last photo you are comparing LED to Halogen beam patterns. I assume the LEDs are on the left. Correct?

Which headlights are you using in this photo?

Do you have photos of the other mentioned headlight beam patterns?

Are any of the headlights DOT approved?

Peace, Pat

[Pjackb]

First le me reiterate so that it's clear

I’m not a headlight expert so use the information at your own discretion,

In your last photo you are comparing LED to Halogen beam patterns. I assume the LEDs are on the left. Correct?

Correct

Which headlights are you using in this photo?

These are my Hella clear lenses with LED bulbs

Do you have photos of the other mentioned headlight beam patterns?

No but you can see them on the manufacturer websites

Are any of the headlights DOT approved?

DOT doesn't approve anything , you can either be be compliant or not to the standard.
All of these have a Hela cutoff which meet the European E Code for lighting which is vastly superior to the USA DOT standard , so are labeled for off road use only

[redroadster]

SAE the Society of Automotive Engineers
Approves parts , or mostly they won't if it's obviously cheap , shotly made

[david premo]

Alright this is going to be a bit difficult for most people. I worked in the automotive lighting industry for about 3 or 4 years, and know a fair amount about automotive lighting. I worked for Siemens lighting group OSRAM as a technical sales engineer. What you need to understand is how light is to be projected for road use. The light pattern is controlled by the photo metrics of the fixture and the bulb which we referred to as the burner has to illuminate a very specific area to meet DOT and EU standards.
So we always refer to the fixtures lighting quadrants in the form of 4 areas in an X vs Y axis. Top right is X positive Y positive and is called 1st quadrant. Going counter clockwise is X negative and Y positive 2nd quadrant. Bottom left is X negative and Y negative 3rd quadrant. Last is X positive and Y negative 4th quadrant.
The pattern of the EU forbids any light in the 2nd quadrant as that creates on coming glare when driving on roads with cars to the right. It is reversed when dealing with roads that cars drive in the left lane to prevent glare in those situations. All road signs in Europe are designed for this type of lighting of the road. THE European lights are frequently referred to as Z beams. All signs must be set in such a manner that they are visible at night with properly adjusted headlights. In the United States our pattern is a little more lax in that light can be in the 2nd quadrant for road signs that are placed on the wrong side of the road, ie to the left side of the car. So in the United States we have some on coming glare with are DOT approved headlights. That said DOT does allow the sale of Z beams for the US motorcycle market, as motorcycle headlamps are higher up than automotive headlamps and reduces on coming glare when approaching cars in traffic.
The second part of this is the burners, which have a very strict quality of construction that must be maintained. The burners are individually checked at 100% during production and any burners that do not meet are scrapped. That by the way, that is the difference between an OEM supplier vs an inexpensive fly by night company. So when you look at an H-4 burner the filament closest to the lens is the low beam and has a cup underneath it which is what creates the z beams sharp line. On the lenses they add fluting to get the light into the 1st and second quadrants. The high beam filament is the one closest to the back of the reflector which makes it gather more light for pushing out on the high beam to see further down the road. All of this said, more light does not often equate to seeing better at night in your car as it has to reach the correct areas. As a side note in racing we would recommend that the car have both a left side of the road headlight and a right side of the road headlight for best night vision. Another thing that helps at night is to turn your dash lights down as low as possible so that your pupils are less constricted and you can see farther down the road. Well I hope this helps or shed’s a little light on the subject.
Dave

[Daryl Smith]

Irrelephant

[6foot3]

Thank you for all of the great posts on LED headlight upgrades. I'll add in a post before the end of the year. I recently purchased 7" Koito headlights (lens states "MADE IN JAPAN") and installed Nineo II fanless/wireless LED bulbs in them (30 watts each). I'll install the headlights when the 1970 Datsun 1600 comes out of its slumber this spring and see how they work.